Imagine being on the autobahn with the accelerator down and then you realize that you are driving a wrecked car. The plight is not so uncommon on the information superhighway too.

Torrent users would attest to the fact that half of our time is spent looking for ‘healthy’ torrents and the other half trying to download (and a bit of upload too) at the maximum speed. The former is mandatory; the latter thankfully is within the realm of tweaking.

If you are the one who thinks that your torrent download speeds could do with a boost then keep reading. Below, you’ll find a few tips on how to speed up torrent download speed. And if you’re new to Torrenting, don’t forget to check out the official MUO Torrent guide.

Go for healthy seeds and peers

A peer is any computer participating in the download and upload of a torrent file. A seed (or seeder) is anyone who has one complete copy of the file being shared across the torrent network. A leech (or a leecher) is the person who does not have the complete file yet but has joined the network to download it. A leecher becomes a seeder when he downloads the entire file and then shares it across the network.

For high torrent speeds, the best bet is in numbers. The greater the number of seeders, the healthier the torrent and the better the chance of higher speeds. The rule of thumb says to choose the torrent files with a high number of seeders and preferably lesser number of leechers i.e. a higher seed-leecher ratio.

Get through the firewall

Firewalls can block all incoming BitTorrent connections coming through. To ensure otherwise, a firewall should be manually configured to accept the connections and let it through the client. Windows XP has the Windows Firewall. Configure the firewall installed to accept the connections by checking the BitTorrent client on the allowed list i.e. Options – Preferences – Connection – check Add uTorrent to Windows Firewall. Also, check the Windows Firewall exception (if you keep it enabled) in your client too. Shutting down the firewall is not recommended as it leaves the computer open to attack.

Note: If the home computer is behind a router, it also should be configured through the feature called Port Range Forwarding to enable torrent traffic. The router documentation should have specific information on this.

Limit your upload rate

A peer to peer network is all about sharing alike, but an unlimited upload rate hits the download rate too. Using the speed tests, find out your maximum upload speed and then set your client’s upload rate (Global Upload Rate in uTorrent) to about 80% of your maximum upload speed. You can also try varying your upload speeds – keep it high initially and then gradually bring it down towards the middle of the download.

Note: Mind the speed units – it may be given in kilobits per second (kb/sec) or kilobytes per second (kB/sec). 1 kilobyte = 8 kilobit

Go to a different port

The default port for the BitTorrent protocol is any between port numbers 6881-6999. ISPs throttle traffic on these ports as BitTorrent sharing involves high bandwidth usage. It’s easy to configure a different port in your torrent client. Use some number above 10000 to get around ISPs and also avoid problems with other applications. By default, the uTorrent port is randomized each time it starts. Set a specific port by not enabling the Randomize Port setting.

Increase the number of Max Half Open TCP connections

This figure specifies how many connections a torrent client should attempt to establish simultaneously at any given time. Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or newer, limits this to a default of 10 as a barrier against virus multiplication. But that’s a bummer for torrent speeds as torrents too need a large number of simultaneous connections.

A patch has been available for a while from LvlLord which modifies the TCPIP.sys file in Windows to allow a higher number of TCP connections.

After running the patch, you have to set the number of connections in your torrent client. For example, in uTorrent go to Options – Preferences – Advanced – net.max_halfopen. Set any number from 50 to 100. But see that net.max_halfopen is set lower than the value set in TCPIP.SYS. Always check if it is still patched because Windows updates sometimes overwrite it.

Experiment with Protocol Encryption

Some ISPs love to act like Big Brothers and constrict bandwidth for P2P protocols. Protocol Encryption in most of the torrent clients helps to override this bandwidth shaping. Enable outgoing protocol encryption and put a checkmark on Allow Incoming Legacy Connections.

With protocol encryption, ISPs find it difficult if not impossible to detect that the traffic is coming from BitTorrent. Experiment with enabled, disabled and forced options because you could be getting better speeds with encryption disabled. Non-encryption makes a torrent connection compatible with someone who is not using encryption but as a minus it makes the torrent detectable to an ISP with a bandwidth restricting policy.

Bandwidth and connections

Global maximum number of connections gives the maximum number of connections that a BitTorrent client can make for any P2P exchange. Setting this too high does NOT mean higher speeds. Setting it too high would take up useless bandwidth and too low a figure would miss out on peers. For my 256kbps connection, I have a setting of 130.

Maximum number of connected peers per torrent gives the maximum number of peers that a BitTorrent client can connect to for any P2P exchange. Experiment by setting this number close to the available peers for a particular torrent. For my 256kbps connection, I have a default setting of 70.

Number of upload slots per torrent gives the maximum number of peers that a BitTorrent client will upload to for any P2P exchange. A low setting may affect downloads. For my 256kbps connection, I have a setting of 3.

uTorrent has a Speed Guide which handily calculates the figures for a particular connection.

Some common sense

Most BitTorrent clients allow us to view the individual files in a download. You can selectively disable the download of files you don’t think necessary.

Familiarize yourself with the customization settings of your particular client available in the Help files or at the website FAQs.

Some useful resources:

Optimizing the speed of torrent downloads is a lot of trial & error and a bit of patience. Do you have some tips to speed up torrent download speed? Any that you have successfully tried out? Maybe we can put some wind beneath the wings with your comments.

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Aljohn M. Mangaya

November 24, 2016 at 10:37 am

Is there a limit to this? What I mean is if I have a 15 mbp/s internet connection, then I am currently getting a 1.2-1.6 mbp/s downloading speed, does it get any higher? When I test my internet speed test in speedtest.com, I get around 11.7 mbp/s, it means if I divide it by 8, my maximum downloading speed will be around 1.5 mbp/s. I did the steps you've written above and I can't see any difference in speed.

It's funny, you have a section at the end called 'some common sense' but haven't used any when making your guide. Specifically point 7.

But thatâ€™s a bummer for torrent speeds as torrents too need a large number of simultaneous connections.

is the bas assumption
It does, yes, but 8 connections being established at any one time is PLENTY. At best, you'll gain by this 5-8 seconds over the ENTIRE torrent, all in the first 60 seconds. On the other hand, the amount of people that need help with their system, because they've applied this 'patch' (needlessly) and its screwed up their TCP stack, means theres often quite a few every day that come to the ÂµTorrent IRC channel, looking for help.

This 'patch' doesn't help, and isn't needed, unless your connection is over 50Mbit upload, where it MIGHT be needed.

Go ahead giving bad advice though, because what does it matter to you? Its people like me, and the utorrent support staff that end up cleaning up your mess.

Something to note, though most modern torrent clients allow "selective downloading" of files (I.E. pick what you want only) - this hurts the torrent life as a whole....for example, if everyone is just loading up the latest "Boy Band torrent, and selecting to download only "That Hit Song They Heard on MTV".....

Protocol encryption won't help. The nature of the traffic itself identifies the protocol. It's a bit like having a stealth fighter with a radar signal the size of a seagull, but how many seagulls travel at over mach one?

That's what is called a false positive according to the site and many forums too.This is what the site itself says -Some AntiVir Software vendors added the patcher into their virus-definitions. The patcher is often detected as 'Tool/EvID'. But as a first info:
The patcher ist NO VIRUS.
Some virus and trojanwriter uses the same technique to increase the limit. After that its easier for them to spread to other computers in the internet. This runs without knowledge of the user. So he is not informed about what's going on.
With the patcher here, every user can decide on his own if he wants to change the file and if yes how high the limit should be. Also the user will be warned if he chooses to high limits, as already infected machines will spread existent viruses and trojans easier to the net. So everybody can choose on its own and is not forced to. The patcher itself does not contain malware.
The virus-notification therefore should be seen as an information that this program contains the functionality to increase the limit. If that program is not known or has not been installed you can delete it.

Saikat is a techno-adventurer in a writer's garb. When he is not scouring the net for tech news, you can catch him looking for life hacks and learning tidbits. You can find him on LinkedIn & Twitter watching over the world.